Austin ‘Top Chef’ Contestant Jo Chan Opens New French Restaurant With Duck Cassoulet and Lobster Frites

Former Top Chef contender, Austin’s Jo Chan, is opening her new French restaurant this week in Austin. And it’s accompanied by a second location of Austin boutique market Tiny Grocer. Both Bureau de Poste and the expansion of Tiny are opening at 4300 Speedway on Tuesday, October 3.

Bureau’s menus focuses on French comfort classics. For dinner, there are pommes dauphine (fried potato puffs) with smoked trout roe and creme fraiche, cured duck leg cassoulet with venison sausage; poisson a la plancha made with a skate wing fish fillet; roasted half-chickens with greens, bread, dried cranberries, pine nuts, and sauces; and the traditional steak frites with rib-eye, tartares with beef or ocean trout, and ratatouille. Desserts include clafoutis and dark chocolate mousses.

The restaurant will offer nightly specials, such as lobster frites, scallops, and a Sunday roast. The kids menu includes roasted chicken breast with fries, a little cheeseburger, and a grilled cheese sandwich. Chan makes sure to offer vegetarian and vegan options as well. There’s also a nice wine list with glasses and bottles, Austin beers, non-alcoholic cocktails, and frozen drinks, including a frosé.

For brunch, Bureau will serve eggy dishes like croque-madames, omelets (with a vegan iteration), and eggs Benedicts, and steak frites with a sunny side up egg. Scope out the full menu below.

Mackenzie Smith Kelley

Mackenzie Smith Kelley

Tiny Grocer’s northern location will offer all sorts of food products, fresh produce, wines, beers, etc., Then there is cookware (including Austin-based Made In), flowers, cleaning products, etc. Daytime food-wise, the market will serve coffee as well as pastries from Austin bakeries Swedish Hill and gluten-free spot Gati. And similar to the South Congress one, it’ll also serve a daytime deli menu of sandwiches and salads, similar to the South Congress one.

Tiny Grocer’s Steph Steele opened the market on South Congress in 2021. She set out to expand into Hyde Park in 2022 with the intention of opening a French restaurant. That’s when she teamed up with Chan, who had left her position at New American restaurant Eberly while her season of Top Chef aired in the spring of 2022. What’s fun about the restaurant is that it’ll source most of its ingredients from the market itself (easy access).

The Speedway development took over the former post office at the address. Also within the complex is First Light Books with a cafe.

Bureau de Poste’s hours are from 5 to 10 p.m. every night and then from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday for brunch. Tiny Grocer’s Hyde Park hours are from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Mackenzie Smith Kelley

Mackenzie Smith Kelley

Bureau de Poste’s Dinner Menu

Bureau de Poste’s Brunch Menu